November 2, 2017

How to Lose Your Audience in 1 Email

It's time to break up with lame templates to engage people

Did you ever see the movie How to Lose a Guy in 10 Days starring Kate Hudson and Matthew McConaghey?

Well, I found a title for the sequel: “How to lose an audience with one bad email.”

Let me provide some context and the plot.

I just received an email message from a CEO whom I never met. I feel sorry for him, because someone persuaded this CEO to promote his friend’s new book. Here’s a snippet from the email message:

“Hi, (notice how personalized this is...),”

“I just finished reading (Mrs. XYZ’s) new book… It’s the best she has ever written…This one (has) 500 pages and 100,000 words…it is really a complete blueprint for (pick your favorite type of transformation)…It’s packed full of really good stuff. :-)

Call me crazy or short on attention, but writing 100,000 words does not make a book riveting. Nor does the “really good stuff” entice me. And it’s painfully clear that someone grabbed an email template, added their signature line, then pressed “SEND.”

How many other companies are using this lame content marketing (or influencer marketing) strategy to promote their business, report, or book?

I imagine that some book coach promising to catapult their book to The New York Times bestseller list recommended this strategy. The author probably paid that coach at least $15,000-$20,000 for the privilege. (I should know—several of these book marketing coaches have approached me over the years, offering similar services).

Today, many authors and experts consider viral email templates an innovative marketing strategy, even a best practice. They’renot marketing innovations. They are imitations.

I’m guilty, to some degree. The only difference is that I ask my influencers to add a personal note, or to not send it at all. I don’t want to lose my audience with 1 email.

We can do better than this, don’t you think? Otherwise, we deserve to be dumped.

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February 5 marks the 45th U.S. president’s State of the Union address. Even though this bombastic politician is known for his childish theatrics, I doubt his speech will be as memorable as the one featuring Mr. Lenny Skutnik.

When he saw the woman lose her grip on the helicopter line, Skutnik dove into the icy Potomac waters and rescued her from certain death. His heroism earned him a VIP seat at President Reagan’s January 1982 State of the Union address….

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